THE VFA PIONEER HISTORIES PROJECT

Mary Dent Crisp

“The Republican Party made me a feminist.”

Veteran Feminists of America event – Salute to ERA Activists, Seawall Belmont House, Washington, DC, May 6, 1999

I was just going to surprise everybody and tell you I am a Republican. And I did support the ERA, and we fought very hard for it. And I must say that the Republican Party, which would probably be strange for you to hear today, made me a feminist because Bob Dole, Richard Nixon, had a national campaign to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment back in ’76. Well, we didn’t quite do that job, but nevertheless we shook them up. And today the Republican Party has shameful leadership when it comes to women and women’s equality. And we look at the issue of choice, which is the ultimate value that we have today and it’s the only thing that gives us freedom. And as Margaret Sanger said so beautifully, “women must control and own their own bodies if they are ever to call themselves free.”